The present invention relates in general to outdoor cooking units, and more particularly to an outdoor cooking unit that is foldable into a compact, collapsed form for ease in transporting and storing.
In the patent to Hait, U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,706, issued on Dec. 25, 1984, for Multi-Purpose Fuel Efficient Portable Stove/Heater, there is disclosed a cooking unit particularly adapted to be used outdoors as an environmentally enclosed heating and cooking system.
In the patent to Hait, U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,094, issued on Apr. 2, 1985 for Convertible Cooking Unit, there is disclosed a cooking unit that includes a truncated pyramidal firebox and a similar support member The firebox and the support member are disposed in nested relation. Accessories, such as grills and cover members, are adapted to be arranged in several modes to provide different cooking arrangements and to enclose all the members in a compact form for storage or transporting.
It is a time consuming chore to maintain the interior surfaces of conventional outdoor cooking units clean. In some instances, the interior walls of such cooking units have a tendency to oxidize. It is widely recognized that cooking units used for barbequing food tend to collect grease on the interior walls thereof. The collection of grease and also the collection of ashes have presented problems to the operators of conventional outdoor cooking units. It is apparent that environmentalists dislike the dumping of ashes or other foreign material in the wilderness.